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It's been a bit quiet on the RikWare blog in the last... umm... well quite a while! But whilst my blog has been quiet there's been plenty of work going on behind the scenes.

I've finally released my latest project - Aussie Bushwalking - is now in the public arena. Aussie Bushwalking is basically a collaborative site for sharing bushwalking information. It really comes about from my love of bushwalking and the lack of ideas for walks in my area :) Hopefully Aussie Bushwalking will help me, and others, find new ideas for bushwalks.

I've still got a pile more ideas to add, but if you've got any ideas then please send them through. And don't worry, whilst the site is focused on Australia/New Zealand, there's already one European walk out there and I'm keen to get other overseas walks listed.

Tania & I headed out to Goomburra State Forest over the weekend with Rod & Abby for camping and walking. Despite the females' doubts, we made it to Laidley Creek Falls and the excellent lookout above them. Got great views of Mt Castle, the whole of Main Range NP and through Moogerah Dam to Mt Barney & Friends (photos coming soon).

Speaking of Mt Barney... Mt Barney is basically the Mecca of South-East Qld bushwalking. It's not a simple climb (though it's no Everest). As with all bushwalking it's recommended to walk as a group. Rod Bishop, however, is more than your average bushwalker. Rod has tackled Barney on his own, after a sleepless night due to a car alarm. He battled fatigue, dehydration and hallucinations in his attempt to conquer the mighty mountain. And finally... he was conquered. But he didn't come away empty handed. Rod has many a story to tell of his trips up Mt Barney so if you ever meet him, make sure you ask.

The best bit is that Rod isn't defeated. He has already planned another attempt on Barney. And this time he's not taking no Peasant's Route (the easiest route up Barney). He's trying his hand at Eagle's Ridge - the most ardous, yet spectacular route Barney has to offer. And this time nothing will stop him!

For those you of you who haven't read my non-existant "about me" page, I'm a keen bushwalker/camper, so over Easter Tania and I headed up to
Elanda Point
for a couple of days with some friends from church. Unfortunately, while there's plenty of space to camp up there, most of it had turned into mud. Still, that's no reason to pack up and go home after driving some three hours through Good Friday traffic.

Another couple from church chose Easter Saturday to get married (congrats to Geoff and Hayley) so most of the group left at 8AM on Saturday to drive from Elanda Point (which is just north of Noosa) to Cabarita on the Northern NSW coast for the wedding - a trip of some 280km. We had a pretty quiet day back at camp on Saturday till they returned about 9PM.

Anyway, I think this entry gives rise to two important issues. Firstly, I'm starting my
Bushwalking
page to keep track of my walking/camping pursuits. We're already planning to head off for some walking on the May Day weekend (just have to find somewhere to go). Secondly, I'm sure people want me to add some method of filtering out some categories from my RSS feed so they don't have to listen to my boring personal anecdotes.

About Us

RikWare is a software development company based in Brisbane, Australia. Led by director, Richard Mason, RikWare focusses on solving challenging business problems promptly and effectively.

RikWare is also the owner of Aussie Bushwalking, a free, wiki-like collaboration site for bushwalkers and the creator of RikMigrations, a migration framework for .NET.

Aussie Bushwalking

Want to discover some new bushwalking ideas? Share a few of your own? Aussie Bushwalking is like Wikipedia... but for bushwalkers. Head on over. Anybody can see the walks and it's free to sign up and share your own.

RikMigrations

RikMigrations is a database migration library for .NET based on the migrations facility provided by Ruby on Rails. It allows simple upgrading and downgrading of databases using .NET code (such as VB or C#) either from the command line or built into your application. Unlike many other migration frameworks, RikMigrations is a stand-alone library which does not rely on a large surrounding framework.